There are lots of examples of ideas, pairings, combinations and plot-twists that occur early in comics, and are seemingly forgotten before someone else picks them up and runs with them.
Let me point on one or two that I'm aware of as examples:
In the early 1970s, say, around The Incredible Hulk, #130 a revolutionary new technique is attempted to cure Banner of being the Hulk. He's strapped to a machine and bombarded by some form of gamma radiation, and he collapses, falling to the ground, human, and seemingly cured, but trapped like a hologram in the beam of energy is the shape of The Hulk, and when the beam is turned off, the image solitifies.... and so, for a number of issues anyway, the Hulk and Banner are separate beings.
And, as you might imagine, they remain linked, so wherever one goes, the other is sure to follow.
Flash forward to the end of the 1980s, and writer John Byrne switches from Alpha Flight to the Incredible Hulk, and within a few issues, he tries something "that has never been attempted before"...he separates Banner and the Hulk. (When I spoke with him at a convention, he pleaded ignorance, saying he was unaware this had been done before. I believe him, but it was still a fun ride while it lasted.)
OK, before you dismiss this as a example of a writer not doing sufficient homework, let's look at another.
As I was flipping around the the Grand Comic Book Database looking at Iron Man #43 which was a thicker book, and supposedly the start of a move to combine DD and Iron Man into the same book(see a discussion elsewhere about this), I was struck by two things.
First, DD had just guest-starred in Iron Man #35 (along with Nick Fury) in a bizarre adventure with the zodiac key. So, the concept of them in the same book wasn't all that foreign. (For the life of me, I can't remember the plot of this thing, but I know that I bought it way back when.)
But second, I also flipped through the covers, and was struck by the fact that she's there. Who? The Goblin Queen? WHO? Alright, call her the Demon Queen, but she's there. (one issue before in #42)
Red hair, black torn dress, goblin/demon related... is this not a precursor to Madalyn Pryor, and the Inferno storyline? I'm not suggesting that the whole concept of the Inferno cross-over was born from this issue...only that we've seen the image of what she became before.
Or is this a case of only so many architypes and we draw on them like short-hand when we want to evoke something?
What do you think?
How many other pre-cursors can you think of?
(And right now, let me rule out "Contest of Chapions" as a precursor for "Secret Wars" or the Avengers arc that introduced the Gamesmaster, in Avengers #69-70-71.)
Replies
In Flash #243 (1976) writer Cary Bates killed off the Top. In #250 (1977) the Golden Glider zapped Iris with a deadly weapon she'd stolen from Captain Cold, and the issue ended with a caption asking the reader whether he or she could be sure this wasn't really her end, given the recent death of the Top. In #275 (1979), not too long after a switch of editors, Bates returned to this idea and actually killed her. (Spoiler warning for the "Trial of the Flash" storyline. She was brought back at the end of the run.)
I have forgotten where I read it, but there was an excellent article somewhere about Marvel precursors in 1950s Atlas comics. Aunt May, Uncle Ben, Dr. Strange and other characters had lookalikes/concept-alikes by the same writers and artists who would make similar characters famous in the "Marvel Age."
Anybody care to fill in the blanks here?
I'd like to know more about this, but let's avoid all those listings in the Overstreet Price Guide that claims "Dr. Doom protype" and others that have been disputed as just a way to inflate the price of those back issues, ok?
Or is this what you're referring to?
Captain Comics said:
There was a famous story of a man shrinking down and exploring an ant-nest, which Marvel later republished with the character's name replaced by Henry Pym's throughout.
The classic "Man within the Ant-Hill" story from just before the Ant-man series began? If it's separated by only an issue or two, I'd say that's more of Stan Lee capitalizing on anything at hand to develop some new super-heroes in the early days.
Or was this spaced further apart? Same Publisher? Same line? Or is this a concept like "The Incredible Shrinking Man" just being recycled?
Figserello said:
I've pointed this next one out before, I think. Jack Kirby drew a story about volcano men for Tales of the Unexpected #22, and another about a volcano monster for Tales of Suspense #7. The cover of Journey into Mystery #97, which introduced the Molten Man, was clearly based on the Tales of Suspense #7 cover.
Marvel's "Thor" series recycled elements, including design elements, that Kirby had used in a story he drew for Tales of the Unexpected #16, as this page explains (adult language warning; adult content elsewhere at that site).
I think I've made this next point before too. Despite his name, Gorgon of the Inhumans was clearly designed to look like Pan or a faun/satyr. Medusa, the first of the Inhumans introduced (probably before the others were thought of), was named after the mythological Medusa. Triton was named after a Greek sea god. Crystal was originally drawn to suggest a witch. The FF storyline that introduced the Inhumans other than Medusa revealed they hailed from a hidden city in the Himalayas. In the account of the Inhumans' origin serialised in Thor it was revealed that the ancestors of the Inhumans got their advanced knowledge from the Kree, and subsequently became the Inhumans through their experimentation with the "Terrigen mists" ("genetic-rays" in Kirby's off-panel notes). In the 70s, when he returned to Marvel, Kirby created the Eternals, a number of whom are the real beings on which the gods of Greek mythology were based, who have a hidden city called Olympia, and who were the product of genetic tampering by the Celestials (as also were our type of human, and the Deviants). Of course, The Eternals was also very obviously indebted to the writings of Eric von Däniken, which had a vogue in the 70s.
In Tales to Astonish #70 the Hulk acquired Bruce Banner's mind. The issue implied this was going to be the status quo for a while, but he was very quickly back to being portrayed as having a violent bruiser's mentality. (It was longer before the character returned to the strong-but-dumb portrayal that had emerged during the earlier part of his Tales to Astonish run.) In The Incredible Hulk #123 Banner acquired the ability to retain his Banner mentality when he changed to the Hulk, but he lost this again the next issue. In #140, while on Jarella's world, he again briefly acquired Banner's mentality as the Hulk. In #272 he finally acquired Banner's mind for a period that lasted a couple of years.
Dr Droom's origin in Amazing Adventures #1 (1961) anticipates Dr Strange's in some respects. In the story Droom is a medical doctor. He is summoned to attend an old (dying) lama in Tibet and subjected to trials designed to test his charitableness, courage etc. On accepting the role of the lama's successor he receives what was apparently intended as an Asian appearance. Dr Strange as originally designed likewise had an Asian look. In his origin story he seems to acquire it after dedicating himself to becoming a magician (contrast his portrayal in the splash panel and final panel to his portrayal in the rest of the story). The "Dr Strange" name was also used, prior to the introduction of Stephen Strange, for Iron Man's opponent in the third published "Iron Man" story, in Tales of Suspense #41.
It may be the memory of Dr Droom led to Dr Doom's being portrayed in his debut story as having experimented with magic. The splash panel of the Droom origin depicts him performing a rite around a brazier. There's a comparable shot of the young von Doom, in which only his hands and shadow are seen, in Fantastic Four #5.
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